Chip Away

In case you have not noticed, I am a bit of a freak when it comes to symbolism. I love word pictures and illustrations, love love love. Give me a sharp pun or play on words and I am a very happy camper. So, imagine, if you can, how I feel when I discover another possible meaning for "Pieces of Alabaster." Originally, it was a play off of Alabaster Grace, my writing ministry. Since these are small writings, I called them "Pieces." Then, there was the whole tie in to the story of the Alabaster box in Scripture. Pieces of Alabaster were all that were left of the woman's most precious belongings. Nifty parallel. Well, yesterday morning, at church, I found another one, and it is by far my favorite.

When I took the picture at the top of this page, it was because the architect was working with alabaster. I thought is was neat that he was sculpting so delicately and so intricately the outline of a young girl into this stone. Then, I took the pictures of me writing and overlayed them to show that like the sculptor, I was working on a creative art form as well. I completely missed the best parallel of them all.

I am God's masterpiece.

Pastor spoke yesterday on the infamous sculpture, David, by Michael Angelo. I will never see it, as magnificent as some hail, unless someone decides to give David a loin cloth. As Pastor told of the sculpture, he said that some say, "Michael Angelo chipped away anything that wasn't David out of that 17 foot piece of marble."

That is the same thing God longs to do with each of us. Each of us is a rugged,rough-edged chunk of marble. We are really of no use except maybe for someone to walk on. We have no function. In each of us, God sees a potential masterpiece, and He longs to use trials and happenings in our lives in order to chip away pieces of marble, or in this case, alabaster. He wants to chip away everything that isn't what He wants us to be. He wants to take our shapeless, common form and transform it into something extraordinary. Something majestic, beautiful, and, in our case, clothed.